Chapter Four: The Man Who Wasn't Dead

The woman wasn't moving.

Jake stood across the street, staring at her body while the thing that used to be Daniel pulled itself to its feet. Blood dripped from its mouth.

It had changed in less than a minute. Black veins crawled across its neck and face and slid under the collar of its torn shirt. Its fingers had grown long, the nails turned into dark hooks. One shoulder sat higher than the other, like something under the skin had yanked the bones out of place.

But the worst part was the face. It still looked human. Not all the way. The jaw hung crooked and the eyes had gone cloudy, thin black lines spreading through the whites. Still, Jake could recognize the man who'd staggered out of that storefront.

That made it worse.

"Jake." Ethan's voice sounded far away. "Jake, we need to move."

The man turned toward them. His lips parted.

"Help..."

Jake stopped breathing. The voice was weak and broken, barely a whisper.

"Please..."

Ethan went still. For one impossible second the whole street seemed to hold its breath.

Then the man's head snapped sideways. His spine cracked. The pleading look vanished.

He charged.

"RUN!"

Ethan shoved Jake toward the sidewalk. They split apart as the creature slammed into a parked car. The metal folded around it and the car rolled into the intersection, alarm shrieking. Jake stumbled, caught himself on a streetlight, and looked back. The thing was already climbing over the wreck.

It didn't move like the pale monsters. Those hunted like animals, all speed and instinct. This one moved in jerky bursts, like the body couldn't hold whatever was driving it.

And it was coming straight for them.

Jake bolted for a narrow passage between two buildings. Ethan followed, panting.

"Tell me you've got another brilliant plan!"

"Keep running!"

"That's not a plan!"

"It's the only one I've got!"

They hit the passage just as the creature landed on the pavement behind them. The ground shook. Jake looked back and saw it scrambling after them on all fours. It was gaining.

A chain-link fence blocked the far end, with a small service yard behind it. A delivery truck sat inside with its back doors open. Jake grabbed the fence and climbed. The metal rattled under him. He swung a leg over, dropped down, and turned to help Ethan.

Ethan reached for his hand. The creature hit the fence. The whole thing bowed inward.

"COME ON!"

Ethan scrambled over and tore his hoodie on the wire. Jake caught his arm and pulled him down just as the fence started to collapse. They ran for the truck. The cargo area was nearly empty, just a few plastic crates. Jake jumped in. Ethan followed and slammed one door as the creature burst into the yard.

The door wouldn't lock. Jake wedged a crate against the handle. The creature hit the metal and the door buckled inward. Ethan stumbled back.

"We can't stay here!"

"No argument!"

Jake spotted a gap between the cargo area and the cab. He squeezed through, dropped into the front seat, and grabbed the door handle. Locked.

"You're kidding me."

He pulled again. Nothing. Ethan appeared beside him, breathing hard.

"Move."

"What?"

Ethan raised his good hand. For a moment, nothing. Then a strange pressure filled the cab. The truck shuddered. The steering column snapped sideways with a sharp crack, and the lock inside the driver's door clicked open.

Ethan stared at his hand. Jake stared at the broken column.

"Did you just..."

"I don't know!"

"Stop saying that!"

"I'M TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT!"

The creature hit the back door again. The crate flew aside. Jake yanked open the driver's door and jumped out, and Ethan came after him. They ran around the truck, through a side gate, and into another street. They didn't stop until the noise behind them faded.

Jake leaned against a wall, lungs burning. His ribs ached where the claws had caught him earlier. The cuts under his torn shirt had started to close, but the bruising was still there. He pressed his fingers to his side. Still sore. Still human.

At least he hoped so.

Ethan slid down the wall beside him. "Okay. I need to talk about what just happened."

"Your trick with the truck?"

"Yes. That."

"Any idea what caused it?"

"No. One second I was trying to open a door, and the next I felt..." Ethan searched for it. "Like pressure building in my arm. I wanted the lock to break, and something happened."

Jake glanced back down the street. "Can you do it again?"

Ethan held out his hand. Nothing. He tried harder, fist clenched so tight his knuckles went white. Still nothing.

"Wonderful," he muttered. "My superpower has performance anxiety."

Jake almost laughed. Almost. Then he thought of the woman lying in the street, and the sound of her scream came back, and the laugh died before it reached his face.

He pulled out his phone. No signal. He tried Rebecca anyway. The call failed. Her last words kept replaying in his head.

Don't come home yet.

Then the crash. Then the scream.

He shut his eyes for a second. He couldn't stand here and wait for the world to get less dangerous.

"We're going to my aunt's house," he said.

Ethan looked up. "You think she's still there?"

"I don't know."

"Jake..."

"I said I don't know."

The edge in his voice surprised them both. Jake looked away.

"I'm going anyway."

Ethan studied him, then pushed himself to his feet. "Then I'm coming with you."

"You don't have to."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to run toward monsters either, but apparently that's your thing."

Jake looked at him. Ethan shrugged.

"Besides, I don't have anywhere better to go."

Jake figured that wasn't completely true. Ethan probably had family somewhere, friends, people waiting. But he didn't ask. He just nodded.

"All right. Stay close."

They worked their way toward the main road. The city was getting harder to recognize. Abandoned cars blocked the intersections. Smoke poured from an apartment building a few streets over. A crowd stood around a bus stop arguing about whether the buses were still running. A man in a suit tried to direct traffic with a broken umbrella.

Past the rooftops, something huge moved through the smoke. Jake couldn't make out its shape. Just a long silhouette sliding between buildings, and a low rumble that came up through the pavement. Nobody looked at it for long.

At the next intersection a small group had gathered around an injured man. Someone pressed a jacket against his stomach. Someone else was yelling for an ambulance. A young woman knelt beside him, maybe nineteen, dark blonde hair in a messy ponytail, gray sweater stained with blood. Her hands hovered over the man's chest while she studied his face.

"Don't move him," she said. "His breathing's getting worse."

"Can you help him?" a middle-aged man demanded.

"I'm trying."

She closed her eyes. Her shoulders tightened. Then she gasped and pulled her hands back.

"What happened?" someone asked.

"I can see..." She swallowed. "I can see where he's hurt. Something's wrong in his chest. He's bleeding inside."

"Can you fix it?"

"No!" Her voice cracked. "I can't fix it. I can tell you what's wrong, but I can't make it go away!"

The man's breathing grew shallower. Jake looked around for anything useful. A pharmacy. A first-aid kit. Anything.

The woman looked up and caught his eye.

"Please. Can you help me find something to stop the bleeding?"

Jake froze for half a second. He wanted to help. He wanted to believe helping people was still possible. But the last time he'd stopped to save someone, he'd died. His hand drifted to his chest. The wound that should have killed him was gone. The memory wasn't.

Ethan stepped forward. "What do you need?"

The woman blinked, thrown by the question. "Clean cloths. Gauze, if you can find it. And someone to keep these people back so I can work."

"We can do that."

Ethan turned to Jake. Jake looked at the injured man. Then at the woman. Then down the road that led south, toward Rebecca.

"All right," he said. "I'll find the supplies."

He ran for a convenience store nearby. The front window was smashed and most of the shelves were on the floor. He searched behind the counter and found a first-aid kit under a pile of fallen boxes. He grabbed it and ran back.

The woman was still kneeling by the man, giving quick orders to the people around her in a steady voice that seemed to surprise even her.

Jake handed her the kit. "Here."

"Thank you."

She opened it and started working. Jake watched her for a moment.

"What were you doing earlier? When you said you could see his injuries."

She hesitated. "I don't know how to explain it."

"Try."

She looked at the man. "I can see things I couldn't before. His breathing. His heartbeat. I can tell something inside him is damaged, even though my eyes can't see it." Her voice dropped. "It's like his body is talking to me."

A chill ran through Jake. He'd seen people bend metal, light themselves on fire, lift things they shouldn't be able to lift. Now this woman could see inside a body. The world was handing out abilities, but not the same one to everyone.

"What's your name?" Ethan asked.

"Claire. Claire Bennett."

"I'm Ethan. This is Jake."

Claire glanced between them. "Have you seen what's happening out there?"

Jake thought of the pale creatures. The armored one. The man who'd turned after he was bitten.

"Enough," he said.

Claire looked down at her hands. "I think I'm about to see a lot more."

A distant explosion shook the intersection. People screamed. Jake turned toward it.

At the far end of the street, a police barricade had collapsed. Past it, a group of survivors was running toward them. Behind the survivors came a dozen pale figures. And in the middle of them, something wearing a human face.

Claire stood up slowly. "What are those things?"

"I don't think they're all the same kind," Jake said.

A blue notification opened in front of him.

(SURVIVAL OBJECTIVE UPDATED.)

(OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE THE INFECTED ZONE.)

(ADDITIONAL CONDITION: PROTECT AT LEAST ONE AWAKENED HUMAN.)

Jake stared at it. Then he looked at Claire.

Ethan followed his gaze. "Let me guess. Your invisible friend has another suggestion."

The System had marked Claire as awakened and given Jake a job because of it. But the line under it bothered him more.

(WARNING: HOSTILE ENTITIES ARE ADAPTING.)

Across the intersection, the human-faced creature stopped running. It looked straight at Jake. Then, with a smile that didn't belong on any human face, it pointed at him.

The creatures behind it changed direction. They weren't chasing the survivors anymore.

They were coming for Jake.